Faculty
Modeling of CNS infections using induced pluripote; Modeling schizophrenia using induced pluripotents; Development of three-dimensional neuronal platform.
The research in Dr.da Silva's lab is centered on a small but highly specialized area of the retina named fovea. The fovea is a high acuity area responsible for our ability to read, drive and recognize faces. We are very interested in deciphering the molecular underpinnings of fovea development and subsequently establish new experimental models of human foveal diseases. Dr. da Silva's lab uses a multidisciplinary research program based on multiple model systems, such as chick embryos and human retinal organoids, combining classical embryological manipulations and state of the art genomic, molecular (multiomics) and human iPSCs 3D culture techniques.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The DeFranco lab studies steroid hormone action in neural stem cells and cancer
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Delgoffe lab researches the metabolic regulation of T cell function, with a specific focus of those T cells that infiltrate the nutrient-poor tumor microenvironment.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
HSV gene expression in productive and persistent infections
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Research in the Dermody laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of Mammalian Orthoreovirus (reovirus) and Chikungunya virus infections.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The central goal of my lab is to explore the structure-function properties and antimicrobial mechanisms of cationic amphipathic peptides to develop peptide-based therapeutics for drug-resistant infections and cancer.
Dr. Dong's laboratory long-term research goal is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying emotional and motivational responses. The laboratory focuses on animal models related to drug addiction. Addictive drugs are among the most effective and efficient external stimuli that evoke the strongest emotional and motivational states. The hypothesis is that strong incentive stimuli, such as experience of drugs of abuse, shift the emotional and motivational states by rewiring the neural circuits in the brain reward pathway. To test this hypothesis, they have been examining several novel forms of neural plasticity upon exposure to cocaine.
*Currently accepting new students
Conducts research in the areas of pharmaceutical policy and mental health, and has particular expertise in the Affordable Care Act.
When communicating with others, we have limited ability to appreciate their perspectives and knowledge, a phenomenon that extends even to our own beliefs prior to having learned what we now know. This limitation may explain in part why experts so often neglect public input when developing communications. As a result, the public often doesn’t get the messaging it needs to support sound decisions. Through my research in the Downs Research Lab, I have set out to bridge this gap, identifying ways of improving perspective taking to translate subject-matter expertise into accessible guidance, so that people might use what otherwise seems to be unusable information.
In some cases, people lack the ability to apply or integrate information that they otherwise would find useful for their decisions. In other cases, the experts have misjudged what people actually need or want to know to help guide them to a more satisfactory decision. I pursue this goal by making technical information more usable (e.g., calorie information for improving food choices), by shifting communications to decision-relevant concepts (e.g., adolescent sexual behavior, which is driven more by social influences than by perceived risk), by improving user interfaces to help the public understand what the experts need from them (e.g., risky online behaviors and self-report data collection), and by contextualization of risk (e.g., shifting from decontextualized assessment of a person’s overall risk level to a behavior-congruent identification of strategies for risk reduction).
These areas of research highlight domains in which communication can be improved by assessing what people need to know and what they value as a prerequisite for intervening to improve decision making. This approach requires meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration to establish domain-specific content that needs to be made accessible, and to this end I work closely with experts in numerous fields including public health, medicine, computer science, robotics, and engineering. In addition to informing strategies for improving decision-relevant policy, my research seeks to affect public welfare directly by building and evaluating tools that help individuals make better decisions.
Dr. Dubowitz's research has looked at neighborhood investments and assets, from new full-service supermarkets in food deserts to greenspace and parks, housing and the streetscape and its impact on resident health outcomes including diet, food security, sleep, cardiometabolic outcomes, and cognitive.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Research in the Duncan lab focuses on liver development, homeostasis, and regeneration.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students